TicklishPhoebe
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WEST WARWICK, R.I. (Feb. 21) - A nightclub erupted in a raging fire during a pyrotechnics display at a rock concert, killing at least 65 people and injuring more than 160 others as frantic mobs rushed to escape.
The death toll rose Friday as firefighters searched through the charred shell of the one-story wood building. Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer said the number of dead had reached 65 by midday.
''They are still pulling bodies out,'' Gov. Don Carcieri said after rushing back to the state from a conference in Florida.
It was the deadliest U.S. fire since nearly 80 people died in the 1993 inferno at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. It also came less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightspot.
The entire club was engulfed in flames within three minutes, Fire Chief Charles Hall said. Club capacity was 300, but Hall said fewer people than that were inside the building.
The '80s hard rock band Great White had just started playing Thursday night when giant pyrotechnic sparklers on stage began shooting up and ignited the ceiling above them and soundproofing near the stage. Some in the crowd said they thought it was part of the act, but the fire quickly spread through the low-ceilinged building, filling it with thick, black smoke.
Robin Petrarca, 44, was standing within a few feet of a door, but said she couldn't see the exit because of the billowing smoke. In the rush to escape, she fell and was trampled, but made it out.
''There was nothing they could do, it went up so fast,'' she said.
Hall said the club, called The Station, had recently passed a fire inspection, but didn't have a city permit for pyrotechnics. The building, which is at least 60 years old, was not required to have a sprinkler system because of its small size.
Most of the bodies were found near the club's front exit, some of them burned and others dead from smoke inhalation. Hall said some appeared to have been trampled in the rush to escape.
''They tried to go out the same way they came in. That was the problem,'' Hall said. ''They didn't use the other three fire exits.''
More than 160 people were taken to area hospitals after Thursday's blaze, Bauer said. Many were taken to Rhode Island Hospital and 38 remained there Friday, 14 of them in critical condition. Doctors said they had severe burns and were suffering from smoke inhalation.
The ages of the victims ranged from the teens to the late 30s.
''As much as we can prepare for anything like this the stark reality is hard to imagine,'' said Dr. Joseph Amaral, a surgeon and the hospital's president. ''One of the most remarkable things for me is the degree of inhalation injuries that everyone sustained.''
The blaze broke out at about 11 p.m. during the first song at the concert in West Warwick, about 15 miles southwest of Providence.
''All of a sudden I felt a lot of heat,'' said Jack Russell, the band's lead singer. ''I see the foam's on fire. ... The next thing you know the whole place is in flames.''
He said he started dousing the fire with a water bottle but couldn't put it out, then all the lights went out.
''I just couldn't believe how fast it went up,'' he said. Russell said one of his band members, guitarist Ty Longley, was among the missing.
It was the second tragedy at a U.S. club in four days. Early Monday, 21 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the Chicago melee, which began after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Firefighters worked through the morning Friday to pull charred bodies from the building as onlookers watched, worried about missing friends.
''They were completely burned. They had pieces of flesh falling off them,'' said Michelle Craine, who was waiting to hear about a friend who was missing. ''It was the worst thing I've ever seen.''
Nearly 200 people gathered at a family center set up at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick by the American Red Cross of Rhode Island. Grief counselors and clergy members were on hand.
Witnesses described seeing dozens of people dash toward for the door after the fire began, and some of those who escaped were later seen staggering into a triage center. Rescuers pulled badly injured victims from the fire as ladder trucks poured water over the flaming skeleton of the building.
''It was calm at first, everyone thought it was part of the act,'' said John DiMeo, who was sitting at the bar near the front door when the fire started. ''It happened so fast.''
Brian Butler was filming the concert for WPRI-TV and saw the flames spread across the ceiling and people rush for the doors.
''People were trying to help others and people were smashing out windows, and people were pulling on people and nobody cared how many cuts they got, nobody cared about the bruises or the burns,'' Butler said. ''They just wanted out of the building.''
The club had passed a fire code compliance inspection Dec. 31 to get its liquor license renewed, Hall said. He said sprinklers were not required because of the building's size, but a license would have been required for the pyrotechnic display.
Russell said the band's manager checked with the club before the show and the band's use of pyrotechnics was approved. The club's owners couldn't immediately be located for comment Friday.
Carcieri, who was in Stuart, Fla., to attend a governors' conference, said the tragedy ''should not have occurred.''
Great White is a heavy metal band whose hits include ''Once Bitten, Twice Shy'' and ''Rock Me.'' The band emerged in the Los Angeles metal scene of the late 1980s, selling 6 million albums and earning a Grammy nomination in 1990.
They continued to tour and make albums in recent years, maintaining a strong allegiance of fans from their glory days of the 1980s.
The owner of a well-known New Jersey club said Friday that Great White failed to tell him they would use pyrotechnics for a concert there a week ago.
''Our stage manager didn't even know it until it was done,'' said Domenic Santana, owner of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. ''My sound man freaked out because of the heat and everything, and they jeopardized the health and the safety of our patrons.''
The worst nightclub fire in the United States was Nov. 28, 1942, when 491 people died at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub.
AP-NY-02-21-03 1204EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
The death toll rose Friday as firefighters searched through the charred shell of the one-story wood building. Town Manager Wolfgang Bauer said the number of dead had reached 65 by midday.
''They are still pulling bodies out,'' Gov. Don Carcieri said after rushing back to the state from a conference in Florida.
It was the deadliest U.S. fire since nearly 80 people died in the 1993 inferno at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. It also came less than a week after 21 people were killed in a stampede at a Chicago nightspot.
The entire club was engulfed in flames within three minutes, Fire Chief Charles Hall said. Club capacity was 300, but Hall said fewer people than that were inside the building.
The '80s hard rock band Great White had just started playing Thursday night when giant pyrotechnic sparklers on stage began shooting up and ignited the ceiling above them and soundproofing near the stage. Some in the crowd said they thought it was part of the act, but the fire quickly spread through the low-ceilinged building, filling it with thick, black smoke.
Robin Petrarca, 44, was standing within a few feet of a door, but said she couldn't see the exit because of the billowing smoke. In the rush to escape, she fell and was trampled, but made it out.
''There was nothing they could do, it went up so fast,'' she said.
Hall said the club, called The Station, had recently passed a fire inspection, but didn't have a city permit for pyrotechnics. The building, which is at least 60 years old, was not required to have a sprinkler system because of its small size.
Most of the bodies were found near the club's front exit, some of them burned and others dead from smoke inhalation. Hall said some appeared to have been trampled in the rush to escape.
''They tried to go out the same way they came in. That was the problem,'' Hall said. ''They didn't use the other three fire exits.''
More than 160 people were taken to area hospitals after Thursday's blaze, Bauer said. Many were taken to Rhode Island Hospital and 38 remained there Friday, 14 of them in critical condition. Doctors said they had severe burns and were suffering from smoke inhalation.
The ages of the victims ranged from the teens to the late 30s.
''As much as we can prepare for anything like this the stark reality is hard to imagine,'' said Dr. Joseph Amaral, a surgeon and the hospital's president. ''One of the most remarkable things for me is the degree of inhalation injuries that everyone sustained.''
The blaze broke out at about 11 p.m. during the first song at the concert in West Warwick, about 15 miles southwest of Providence.
''All of a sudden I felt a lot of heat,'' said Jack Russell, the band's lead singer. ''I see the foam's on fire. ... The next thing you know the whole place is in flames.''
He said he started dousing the fire with a water bottle but couldn't put it out, then all the lights went out.
''I just couldn't believe how fast it went up,'' he said. Russell said one of his band members, guitarist Ty Longley, was among the missing.
It was the second tragedy at a U.S. club in four days. Early Monday, 21 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the Chicago melee, which began after a security guard used pepper spray to break up a fight.
Firefighters worked through the morning Friday to pull charred bodies from the building as onlookers watched, worried about missing friends.
''They were completely burned. They had pieces of flesh falling off them,'' said Michelle Craine, who was waiting to hear about a friend who was missing. ''It was the worst thing I've ever seen.''
Nearly 200 people gathered at a family center set up at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick by the American Red Cross of Rhode Island. Grief counselors and clergy members were on hand.
Witnesses described seeing dozens of people dash toward for the door after the fire began, and some of those who escaped were later seen staggering into a triage center. Rescuers pulled badly injured victims from the fire as ladder trucks poured water over the flaming skeleton of the building.
''It was calm at first, everyone thought it was part of the act,'' said John DiMeo, who was sitting at the bar near the front door when the fire started. ''It happened so fast.''
Brian Butler was filming the concert for WPRI-TV and saw the flames spread across the ceiling and people rush for the doors.
''People were trying to help others and people were smashing out windows, and people were pulling on people and nobody cared how many cuts they got, nobody cared about the bruises or the burns,'' Butler said. ''They just wanted out of the building.''
The club had passed a fire code compliance inspection Dec. 31 to get its liquor license renewed, Hall said. He said sprinklers were not required because of the building's size, but a license would have been required for the pyrotechnic display.
Russell said the band's manager checked with the club before the show and the band's use of pyrotechnics was approved. The club's owners couldn't immediately be located for comment Friday.
Carcieri, who was in Stuart, Fla., to attend a governors' conference, said the tragedy ''should not have occurred.''
Great White is a heavy metal band whose hits include ''Once Bitten, Twice Shy'' and ''Rock Me.'' The band emerged in the Los Angeles metal scene of the late 1980s, selling 6 million albums and earning a Grammy nomination in 1990.
They continued to tour and make albums in recent years, maintaining a strong allegiance of fans from their glory days of the 1980s.
The owner of a well-known New Jersey club said Friday that Great White failed to tell him they would use pyrotechnics for a concert there a week ago.
''Our stage manager didn't even know it until it was done,'' said Domenic Santana, owner of the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. ''My sound man freaked out because of the heat and everything, and they jeopardized the health and the safety of our patrons.''
The worst nightclub fire in the United States was Nov. 28, 1942, when 491 people died at Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub.
AP-NY-02-21-03 1204EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.
